Aberrant resting-state regional activity in patients with postpartum depression

Bo Li; Shufen Zhang; Shuyan Li; Kai Liu; Xiaoming Hou

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2022.925543

Aberrant resting-state regional activity in patients with postpartum depression

Front Hum Neurosci. 2023 Jan 19:16:925543. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.925543. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Bo Li¹, Shufen Zhang², Shuyan Li³, Kai Liu¹, Xiaoming Hou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, The 960th Hospital of the PLA Joint Logistics Support Force, Jinan, China.
² Department of Obstetrics, Shandong Second Provincial General Hospital, Jinan, China.
³ Foreign Languages College, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong, China.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China.

Abstract

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common disorder with corresponding cognitive impairments such as depressed mood, memory deficits, poor concentration, and declining executive functions, but little is known about its underlying neuropathology.

Method: A total of 28 patients with PPD and 29 healthy postpartum women were recruited. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans were performed in the fourth week after delivery. Individual local activity of PPD patients was observed by regional homogeneity (ReHo) during resting state, and the ReHo value was computed as Kendall's coecient of concordance (KCC) and analyzed for differences between voxel groups. Correlations between ReHo values and clinical variables were also analyzed.

Result: Compared with healthy postpartum women, patients with PPD exhibited significantly higher ReHo values in the left precuneus and right hippocampus. ReHo value was significantly lower in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and right insula. Furthermore, ReHo values within the dlPFC were negatively correlated with the Edinburgh PPD scale (EPDS) score. The functional connectivity (FC) of the right hippocampus to the left precuneus and left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) was stronger in patients with PPD than that in controls.

Conclusion: The present study provided evidence of aberrant regional functional activity and connectivity within brain regions in PPD, and it may contribute to further understanding of the neuropathology underlying PPD.

Keywords: ReHo; fMRI; functional connectivity; postpartum depression; regional functional connectivity.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Shandong Provincial Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Plan Project (grant number 20210520733), the Key Basic Research Projects of the Foundation Strengthening Plan (grant number 2019-JCJQ-ZNM-02), the Clinical Medical Science and Technology Innovation Program (grant number 202019022), and the President's Foundation of the 960th Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Joint Service Support Force (grant number 2021MS04).